Thursday, August 2, 2007

Yesterday the New York Times revealed that Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York City, is driven 22 blocks by SUV to catch the subway to City Hall. Still, I think the fact he's taking the subway at all is an important example to the people of New York, and though it might be done better, he should be praised (or at least a hug here and there) for his consistent effort. I wish other mayors will follow him.

At the same day, I saw an ad on the Times of PlanYC, Bloomberg's environmental vision and plan for New York's near future. The plan includes targets such as reducing the carbon emissions of the city in 30% by 2030.

The ad I saw was part of a marketing campaign that calls New Yorkers to take an active part in this plan. On their website, it's written that Mayor Bloomberg cannot reach the target of reducing emissions without the New Yorkers, and calls them to make a difference.

There's a list on this page of ten easy tips how to do it. It also emphasize that some of these tips will not only save emissions, but will save you money. For example, tip no. 4: unplug chargers and appliances when not in use.

My favorite is tip no. 10: switch to paperless bank statements and online bill paying. It's a fairly east step and saves many trees and toxic air pollutants! According to the site, if every home in the US viewed and paid bills electronically, the country would save 18.5 million trees and avoid 2.2 billion tons of toxic air pollutants.

The spirit of NYC is definitely the spirit of Eco-Libris - people have the power to make a difference, and the steps they take accumulate and make an impact. Like they say on the GreenYC page: "Each New Yorkers small steps, put together, will add up to big strides".

The big news these days are about the acquisition of Dow Jones by Rupert Murdoch, but the green world has big acquisition news of its own. Environmental Leader reported yesterday that Discovery Communications acquired TreeHugger.com, maybe the most influential and significant green website.

According to the article, TreeHugger will become part of Discovery's Planet Green, a multiplatform initiative that will launch a 24/7 eco-lifestyle TV network on 2008.

It was quite obvious that the influential TreeHugger will be a target to acquisition by one of the media moguls that try to increase their presence in the growing green media. I am sure Discovery will benefit from this deal and the only question left open is if TreeHugger will remain independent and innovative - two things that assisted him in leading the green blogosphere until now.

Oh, and by the way, TreeHugger reported this week for the first time on Eco-Libris. We were very excited about it. Still, it's the most popular green website with 1.4 million unique monthly visitors. So, is it just a coincidence that both events happened at the same week? ;-)

ebooks vs. paper books:

Eco-Libris: Plant a tree for every book you read!

Founded in 2007, Eco-Libris is a green company working to green up the book industry in the digital age by promoting the adoption of green practices in the book industry, balancing out books by planting trees, and helping to make e-reading greener.

To achieve these goals Eco-Libris is working with book readers, publishers, authors, bookstores and others in the book industry worldwide. So far Eco-Libris balanced out over 179,500 books, which results in more than 200,000 new trees planted with its planting partners in developing countries.